Punit Patel Evaluation
- 1. Punit Patel
- 2. Firstly My front cover layout is similar to ‘Vibe’ magazine In many ways, the mastheads are in a similar position and roughly the same size. ‘Vibe’ magazine have their headlines on the left and right hand columns like I have done. Many magazines have a main headline and base the foreground image around that. I have a main headline and the relating image for it. My contents page was going to in boxes around the page like NME contents pages but I changed it to a list format. ‘Vibe’ magazine list their content in the same way. Most content titles are small and unattractive, I modified it by making it brighter and bigger like the front cover masthead because the contents page is very important to potential buyers. ‘Vibe’ magazine usually use one image and make it almost as big as the page. I disagree as it only focuses on content, I believe that there should be a few images for different contents that’s why I have 3 images.
- 3. My double page spread is different and modified versions of other album reviews. My double page spread reviews 10 albums with details information that the public likes to read about. Other reviews only review 1 or 2 albums at a time but uses the same number of pages as it gives information that is pointless and boring. Some magazines such as the ‘Q’ magazine review albums but don’t make it attractive enough so I modified it by changing the layout and adding more colour and brightness.
- 4. As my target audience I mainly Teenager and young/mid Adults my magazine is targeted at C1-D classed people like average people at an average young age. This is shows in my magazine firstly I the front cover where I have used bright colours and stylish fonts. According to my research my audience like this scheme I have used as it attracts them. Also the image of the young artist on the front is used to connect the magazine to the audience as the artist has a common ground with the audience in terms of the magazine genre. The contents page reveals the articles in the magazine. The articles were thought of with the audience in mind as articles like ‘The X-Factor’ stories and ‘up coming concerts in the UK’ are aimed at my audience who have an interest in gossip and useful concert information. The design of the contents page represents my audience as it is slightly simple but elegant and ‘fun’. The image of an IPod represents my audience as it is a very popular piece of technology that many teens and adults like/own. My album review article represents the audience through the context it is written in and the way it is laid out. The reviews are written in a formal yet sluggish language representing the language that my audience tend to usually use. I have designed it to look spaced out but very informing. The type of albums are mainly the type that the target audience prefer(Hip-Hop, R’n’B and Rap genre). The images of the albums help to make the article more profession and interesting to look at.
- 5. HMV are a nationally known media institution specialising in music and movies. They would distribute my magazine as HMV and my magazine have similar target audience, also HMV have many different types and classes of audiences that are bound to be the same as mine. HMV customers would be interested in my magazine as my magazine may influence them to HMV products using reviews and opinions to promote them increasing profit levels as media runs on profit. Profit is the main way an institute can carry on producing and distributing so any means are taken to increase profit levels My magazine clearly presents its target audience and so do Inter Media Partners who distribute ‘Vibe’ magazine. ‘Vibe’ magazine and my magazine have a lot of similarities like genre and target audience. Inter Media Partners would distribute my magazine as they have great success with ‘Vibe’ it is well known trusted brand. My magazine would sell as there are so many of the same audiences for ‘Vibe’ which would bring potential buyers. My magazine contains many articles on youth culture and celebrity news. That is another reason why Inert Media Partners would distribute my magazine.
- 6. My first target audience are Teenagers. Having a teenage audience comes with a very specific advantage. Teenagers how have an interest in hip hop and R’n’B are usually pleased with short yet details information in a magazine. My research indicates that many teenagers (especially females) like the gossip and latest news type of articles. Also Teens appreciate the colourful and bold designs on a magazine as it catches their attention. I have found that young teens may not prefer music and gossip magazines as they are still quite immature so I have tried to target the older teens (15-19). I have not specified my target audience to male of female. I have aimed my magazine at both genders as I believe that in terms of music they are both similar. Some articles should be aimed at male and at female alone as it can cover differences they have. My Second Target audience are young adults. The type of language that these young adults prefer is formal but in an exciting and ‘fun’ manor. The reason I chose to target young adults is because I believe it gave me challenge. I believe that young adults have many different preferences. Majority of them would like to have magazine that is very informative and very details in a professional layout. Also design isn't as important to them as content. The difficulty lies in the mission to please both types of target audience. As their preferences have some similarities and some differences. It was hard to manages to target both.
- 7. Firstly in the front cover, i started with the layout. I tried to keep the format simple and spacious yet have make it look interesting and details. I decided top put my headlines on the right and he left hand columns because it makes space in the centre but there is enough space on the sides to put text. I originally thought to put the masthead on the left like the NME magazines but after much thought I decided to make I bigger and put it in the centre, Also I made it colourful but making a rainbow effect around the masthead. This was don’t make my magazine bold and striking to attract potential buyers. I also decided to add an eyebrow advert promoting an article. The eyebrow is in black and white. I have made it different to the rest of the magazine to target the audience and catch their eye upon it. The image of the model/artist relating to the article advert in big in the centre as the artist relates to the teenage audience as she herself is a teenage article. This is a good way to address the audience by creating a relationship between the magazine and the audience, also I have chosen to go with this teen artist for my main headline as it is more suited to go with the theme of Appling an image to the front cover. The masthead is in the middle and the letter ‘A’ goes behind and around the Artist hoody to split the reader’s attention to the 2 columns on article adverts. This is a good technique to make passing audience view the whole magazine and not just one or 2 subsections.
- 8. Secondly in the contents page, I started with the text arrangement. My original plan was to use NME’s design and create boxes around the page with article introductions in there but after I made my final decision on the articles I found that the box idea was not use full as it would make the contents page scrammed and congested which will not impress and attract my audience so I switched to the list idea where I list my content titles in a zigzag pattern(one title to the left, then underneath, one title to the right). This layout is very professional, I did this because I can target the young adults who like the professional look. To not lose the teenage audience I tried to use consistency from the front cover which is a big hit with the teens by carrying on some design properties like the font and the colours. The text in white with pink outline. This is used to catch the attention of my teen audience. The contents page titles uses the multicolour scheme but not as an outline, to keep some differences I made it a multicolour glow to make it more formal for the Adult audience but to keep it colourful for the young audience. The images on the contents page are to make the contents page less formal and more exciting. The background is to make the page look less plain and bland. I chose to do a collection of album reviews as my main double page spread. The reason for this is that this article is aims at Hip-Hop and R’n’B fans which happen to be my target audience. This is a good way to attract my audience as it a topic that all Hip-Hop, R’n’B and Rap listeners want to know all about. To top it all off I created an advert on the latest IPod. I believe this was a marvellous idea as it is a music magazine and the IPod touch is used to listen to music. The relationship between music and the IPod relates to the audience at reels them in to reading the advert.
- 9. Well I have learnt many things about the modern technology. The main thing I have learnt is that technology is the most important and useful asset a producer can own. Using technology to make my whole magazine meant I learnt a gained many skills in the editing section. In Photoshop I learnt many new skills such as air brushing a person to make them look glamorous and perfect. This helped me build and image of fame for my magazine which would be pasted up to my distributors. Also I learnt many hidden effects such as background editing and contrast/brightness issues. In InDesign i learnt many techniques on how to have a good layout and how to keep good presentation. InDesign helps me a lot when I came to writing up my album reviews as it helped me align all my text and images up to make it look profession and less messy.
- 10. I have learnt many things after my preliminary task. Firstly I have learnt how to use InDesign and use most of its features. Secondly I learnt what factors need to be considered when targeting audience. In the preliminary task I thought I wouldn’t need to aim a specify target audience but I soon found that it is difficult to design and layout a front cover and contents page without knowing who to produce it for and how to please a person. Thirdly I learnt what the best way is to layout and plan a whole music magazine. I learnt what structure to base my magazine around. I found that it is very important to plan a magazine well so creates more ideas on what to change/modify. Lastly I learnt after my preliminary task that design is just are important as content. If a magazine has style, it is not good enough if the content does not match the same level of success. The design should also be made in consideration of the content, e.g. many pictures around a page forcing the text to be small and squashed.